Imagining Communities through Architecture — The Mediterranean Sea as a Constellation

This lecture will present three projects that bring together art and architecture united by the Mediterranean Sea as a coherent site of imagination, collective future and interconnectedness:

1. Cycles of Collapsing Progress, an exhibition held at the Oscar Niemeyer-designed Unesco World Heritage Site in Tripoli, Lebanon.  
2. Warché, a show at the Thalie Foundation in Brussels that links the history of Beirut with the sunken Roman city of Baiae (Italy) and the geometrical architecture of the Arab world  through an original installation by architect Lina Gothmeh.  
3. Mare a Mare, a refuge for a Mediterranean nation, designed with architect Meriem Chabani for the Lagos Biennale in Nigeria. This pavilion refers to a transnational shelter where differences cohabit, exceeding national identities, borders, and hierarchies: a breeding ground for future intersections.  

Taking this intercontinental Basin as a key site for the exchange of ideas, these 3 proposals reconfigure the Mediterranean as a constellation, both imaginary and real. Navigating from shore to shore, fictional communities help us see the Mediterranean Sea as a whole. 

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